


Making a Marauder

by Lionslionslions



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Friendship, Hogwarts, Including Pottermore stuff only when it suits me, Later Romance, M/M, Marauders, canon as per the books
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-09
Updated: 2019-11-14
Packaged: 2021-01-26 00:56:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 13,322
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21365518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lionslionslions/pseuds/Lionslionslions
Summary: Starting at the very beginning, until the very end. This is the story of the Marauders at Hogwarts and how four Gryffindor students came to create the legendary Marauder's Map.
Relationships: James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Comments: 9
Kudos: 9





	1. In the Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you all enjoy the story.
> 
> I plan to try to stick to as much book canon as I can, but everything else is very much pick and choose to make the story work as well as I can.

Sirius Black had been thoroughly unsurprised to receive his letter from Hogwarts in June, and even his parents had acted rather underwhelmed by the breakfast delivery. The Blacks were the sort of family who assumed their relatives would be wizards, then only cared about excommunicating them if they turned out to be squibs.

There had never been any doubts about Sirius’ magical talents as family gossip suggested that his first sign of magic had apparently been when his hair caught fire shortly after birth, and he had barely slowed down since. Only six months earlier, Sirius had hidden in his room and found the door locked in such a way that no one else could open it. His parents had tried a number of different charms and still found themselves trapped on the other side, threatening to risk the house by burning down the door instead.

The old family arguments had only grown more heated now that Sirius had a way to defend himself, and he felt a wave of relief wash over him as he barrelled through the barrier to Platform 9 3/4. The scarlet engine and reams of students were the final reassurance Sirius needed to be sure that he was finally leaving the Black household.

No sooner had he stepped away from the pillars which marked the entrance than he felt an iron grip on his shoulder. His parents had both come to see him off with his younger brother Regulus eagerly staring at the range of wizards and witches strewn across the platform.

Mrs Black was a stern woman and her steely grip was only made more painful by the large, green rings she had chosen to wear on every finger. Both she and Sirius’ father were wearing resplendent green robes with silver trimmings to remind everyone on the platform what sort of wizards they were. The entire morning at Grimmauld Place had been spent listening to Mrs Black’s ravings about the oddities and inadequacies of the other houses.

Sirius wanted to melt into the ground as his mother turned her to face him and commanded, far too loudly, “Remember where you belong, Sirius. Your father and I will be waiting for your letter once the sorting ceremony is over.”

Never one to hang about on such false platitudes as pretending that they loved each other, the Black family disapparated without another word.

Looking around the rest of the wizards and witches on the platform, Sirius caught the eye of a boy around the same age who had turned bright red while having his hair henpecked by his mother and rolled his eyes as if to say ‘parents, what can you do with them?’

The boy smiled in return and started to shoo away his parents, who each kissed him on the head before letting him run over to join Sirius. He felt a pang in his chest at this obvious gesture of affection but pushed it deep down with all of his other repressed feelings and reached his hand out like he had seen his father do to his guests.

“Sirius Black,” he smiled as the other boy grasped his hand.

“James Potter,” James grinned, turning his hand to reveal a small Shocking Sickle sizzling, “I see you also know your practical jokes.”

Sirius was no longer faking his smile as he revealed his own Shocking Sickle. Shaped like a small silver coin, they were toys designed to zap the next person who touched them either as part of a transaction or, in this case, during a handshake. Pushing them together had caused them to burn each other out and now sizzle gently on their respective palms.

“Great minds think alike,” Sirius replied, dropping the useless token into his pocket.

“Shall we get on the train? If we get good seats we can get a look at the competition,” James said, already grabbing Sirius’ trunk to move it closer to his own.

James introduced Sirius eagerly to his parents and they either didn’t recognise his last name or were kind enough not to react. Based on the expensive robes and general lack of surprise at the magical happenings on the platform, Sirius suspected they were sufficiently magical that the latter was more likely.

“Lovely to meet you Sirius, do try to keep James out of trouble won’t you,” Mr Potter said as he shook Sirius’ hand. James and Sirius struggled to avoid laughing as they plastered on angelic grins.

“Or at least stop him from getting in trouble for it,” Mrs Potter had whispered under her breath with a wink.

James and Sirius both nodded enthusiastically before James succumbed to more hugging with his parents.

Sirius left them to it and hurried aboard the train with his luggage, turning immediately into the empty carriage next to the middle doors. James followed quickly after him, rubbing indignantly at a smudge of lipstick on his cheek while glaring at Sirius, daring him to comment.

Not long after they struggled to haul their trunks up into the rack, the boys heard what sounded like whimpers among the voices coming from outside their compartment. They shared a confused look before poking their heads out of the door, almost running into a cowering boy in muggle clothes and two large Slytherin boys looming over him.

“Give it to me,” the taller of the Slytherin boys growled, reaching for the cowering boy’s collar. He missed by a hair’s breadth as the small boy fell to the ground in his hurry to scurry further backwards.

“What seems to be the matter here, lads?” James asked as he stepped into the corridor, trying to draw himself up into all of his eleven-year-old glory. He’d drawn his wand and held it in front of him, more like a sword than a delicate magical instrument.

The Slytherins scoffed, “You don’t know how to use that, you little twerp.”

James seemed to consider this for a moment before suddenly punching the taller boy in the face.

Sirius let his mouth hang open for only a moment before following suit with a delicately placed kick that dropped the other boy to the ground with a heavy thump.

He whimpered softly as his brother in arms groaned, clutching his nose.

The first years readied themselves for a fight when two burly Hufflepuff prefects stormed towards them from the front of the carriage.

They pulled the whimpering Slytherin boy to his feet and placed themselves between the combatants before one of them sighed, “Are you serious Rosier? Picking on the little kids before you’ve even made it off the train?”

James and Sirius shared a sigh of relief that the attention seemed to be on the Slytherin boys before the prefect whirled around, “And you two, you may think you’re big now, but this sort of fighting will not be tolerated at Hogwarts. Now, split up and don’t let me catch any of you trying this sort of thing again. Am I making myself very clear?”

The five of them all nodded solemnly, waiting until the prefects had turned their backs before gesturing vicious death threats at each other.

Despite their successful ambush, James and Sirius were secretly relieved when the Slytherins skulked away with their tails between their legs. They quickly slipped back into their compartment, followed by the cowering boy scrambling up from the floor dragging a large trunk and an owl cage covered in a jacket.

“Th-thank you so much,” he stammered as he quickly closed the door behind himself.

“It was nothing,” James replied casually, though looking more than a little paler than he had mere minutes earlier.

“I’m Sirius, this is James. What’s your name?” Sirius asked, trying to break the ice with their hyperventilating new friend.

“Peter, Peter Pettigrew,” Peter stated nervously, ducking his head in an awkward almost bow.

“What were those meatheads harassing you about?” James asked as he kicked his feet up on the bench seat.

“My-my mother gave me some sweets for the train ride,” Peter replied, turning out his pockets to reveal several dozen wrapped sweets of various kinds. He offered them to James and Sirius who both shook their heads.

“Thanks, but you have them. I didn’t save you just to have me steal them instead,” James spoke first. Peter let out a noise that could have been a sob of gratitude causing James and Sirius to look away, sharing an uncertain glance about whether they should say anything else.

After a moment of awkwardness, they silently decided to stare out the window instead.

Only another short moment later, Sirius felt an elbow nudging his ribs and a finger popped into his field of view.

“Quick, look over there!” James hissed excitedly, nudging Sirius to the right.

Sirius struggled to work out what he was pointing to, every bit of platform looked more or less the same crowded with happy and unhappy families. James nudged again and Sirius realised he was pointing towards a boy and a pretty girl around their age standing next to the barrier looking a touch lost.

“It’s a girl, James, I’m sure there will be plenty of them at Hogwarts,” Sirius sighed, leaning away from the window.

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Peter inching forwards to try to catch a glimpse of the girl they were both looking at.

Without another word, James had disappeared out of the compartment, reappearing on the platform next to the girl and boy. He was animatedly gesturing towards the train and moments later had grabbed the handle of the pretty girl’s trunk, wheeling it towards the train.

Seconds later, James’ scruffy hair appeared in the doorway as he steadily hoisted the girl’s trunk up into their compartment. He patted the seat where his feet had been minutes earlier for Lily to sit down, a gesture Severus had noted with obvious disdain.

He was positively beaming with boyish pride as he made introductions, “Lily and Severus this is Peter and Sirius, Peter and Sirius this is Lily and Severus.”

Lily smiled brilliantly at the boys while Severus looked as though he was trying to hide from the others by folding himself into the corner. He had long, dark hair, longer than Sirius’, and wore oversized, dark clothes that aided the impression that he was trying to be one with the shadows. Despite his best efforts to blend in with the furniture, James had clearly taken note of the way Lily had led Severus onto the train by the hand and had already given him the sort of withering glare Sirius’ mother would be proud of. Sirius had no intention of taking stakes in James’ apparently early-blooming love life but couldn’t help judging the way Severus seemed to shuffle himself away from Peter like he might be poisonous.

“So where are you all from?” Lily had asked the compartment at large. Severus had given up side-eyeing Peter to hang off her every word, scowling when James answered loudly and immediately.

“Godric’s Hollow,” he announced with pride.

“Where’s that?” Lily asked after a slight pause, clearly expecting some more detail about where in the country that might be.

“It’s a wizarding town,” Severus replied, earning a frown from James, “So does that mean that your parents are both wizards then?”

Something about the pompous tone made Sirius butt in on James’ behalf, “What’s it to you?”

“Nothing,” Severus replied quickly, looking to Lily to check her response. Sirius had spent enough time around blood purists to know a loaded question when he saw one, but even his parents had taught him to make sure he was in the right company before discussing it. He couldn’t help himself from looking again over Severus’ unkempt appearance and wondering how someone dressed like a muggle in a sack had any right to ask others about their blood status.

“My parents are both wizards, they raise owls in Kent,” Peter stated, seemingly oblivious to James and Sirius both staring at Severus. Almost as if on cue, a large owl had awoken under Peter’s coat and started nibbling at its cage bars in the corner of the cabin.

“That sounds amazing. We have owls where Severus and I come from, but I’ve never seen them act anything like the ones in Diagon Alley. Are they hard to take care of?” Lily asked. It occurred to Sirius that it sounded like Lily had grown up in a muggle community, meaning Severus either didn’t care about upsetting her or was hoping to bait James into doing it instead. Based on James’ furrowed brow, Sirius suspected James was coming to the same conclusion and didn’t look like he approved of either idea.

Peter had turned a bright shade of red now that he had Lily’s rapt attention, so James turned the puppy eyes back on as he asked Lily, “Where did you grow up then?”

“Cokeworth, my parents are both muggles but Severus’ mum is a witch too,” she replied brightly. Sirius couldn’t help raising his eyebrows at the open admission of muggle heritage but none of the others seemed to care. James probably would’ve looked as happy with her response if she’d said she was a hag and Peter was still looking at the carpet waiting for the cooties to go away.

“Is it nice there? I’ve never been,” James had turned himself so much to face Lily that if he turned any further he’d have to transfigure his knees into the seat.

Sirius envied the fact that this prevented James from having to see Severus’ sour face as he scowled and replied, “No.”

Lily looked almost pityingly at Severus before replying herself, “Well it’s home. We’re looking forward to seeing Hogwarts though, Severus says it’s brilliant!”  
It was James’ turn to look sour before Lily continued, “What houses do you think you’ll be in? Severus was explaining it all to me and I think I could be in Gryffindor, or maybe Ravenclaw. I’d be happy anywhere though,” she added, turning to look at Severus who looked like she’d told him that his favourite Quidditch team had all died suddenly.

“I’ve told you already, you don’t belong in Gryffindor,” Severus replied haughtily. Sirius knew where this was going, in fact he’d had a very similar diatribe this morning from his mother.

James had scoffed audibly at the disdainful tone of the word Gryffindor leading Severus to turn his head and snarl, “No prizes for guessing where you’ll be then.”

“Gryffindor, ‘where dwell the brave at heart!' Like my dad. Got a problem with that?” James had leant forward in his chair, daring Severus to challenge him.

“No. If you'd rather be brawny instead of brainy –,” Severus started, leaning forward in his chair to match James.

“Where are you hoping to go, seeing as you're neither?” Sirius interjected, drawing Severus’ ire.

Severus leapt up from his chair followed by Lily who shouted, “Stop it, all of you. Why don’t we all just wait until sorting and stop this petty squabbling.”

Severus stayed towering over Sirius for another moment before grabbing his robes from his trunk and storming out, muttering, “I’m getting changed,” to Lily under his breath.

She took several deep breaths, glaring at Sirius and James in turn before getting her own robes and following suit, “I’m going to go do the same while you two cool your heads.”

James withered under her stare before quickly closing the door once both Lily and Severus were out of earshot. From his pockets he produced another Shocking Sickle and what looked to be a small tube of muggle super glue. Peter looked curious about the Sickle itself while Sirius was more distracted by wondering what exactly James Potter kept in his pockets.

After another quick check of the corridor, James quietly reopened Severus’ trunk, gluing the Sickle to the side where one would naturally hold the case while stacking something inside of it, such as clothes one had recently changed out of.

He carefully replaced the trunk in the same state it had been before and returned to his seat, eagerly awaiting Lily’s return. Sirius could see a flaw in James’ grand plan but decided he would take the risk to get to experience Severus Snape’s face when he got zapped.

It wasn’t too much longer before the pair returned, though Sirius noticed that Lily still looked angry and Severus looked more than a touch admonished.  
James looked almost like he’d forgotten the prank he had planned only minutes earlier, still smiling at Lily as Severus opened his trunk and quickly jumped back from it.

He immediately rounded on James, brandishing his pale fist at him, “What did you do to my case?”

James tried to look innocent, but Lily wasn’t having a bar of it. The anger was clear in her voice as she yelled at him, “I can’t believe you’re so childish! Severus, we’re leaving.”

Ignoring James’ weak attempts at protest, Lily yanked her luggage from the rack, not caring that it had almost squashed James’ toes as it hit the ground.

Her hair fanned out as she whirled quickly to the door and stormed out of the compartment. There wasn’t likely to be much more room in the rest of the train, but

Sirius thought she was likely to sit in the aisle on a trunk rather than admit defeat by returning to their compartment.

Severus gave a gloating smile as he followed her, and Sirius had to kick James in the shins to prevent another student from getting punched in the face before they had even reached the sorting ceremony.

James fell silent after they both left the cabin, but he immediately started fishing for something in his trunk before Sirius could offer his condolences to James’ dream of puppy love.

He was still elbow deep in his trunk when a kindly young lady knocked at their compartment door, pulling a trolley covered in brightly coloured sweets.

“Anything from the trolley, dears?” she asked.

Peter shook his head sheepishly, pulling a sweet out of his pocket with a small smile.

Sirius was about to ask for a Thousand Filling chocolate bar when James re-emerged from his trunk with a devious look in his eye.

“Excuse me, miss, I owe my friend a pumpkin pasty and just wanted to check he hadn’t already bought one. Long black hair, sitting with a red-haired girl, about this tall,” James gestured to a height that did Severus a disservice by several centimetres.

“Oh no, he didn’t get anything,” the witch replied with a sweet smile.

“Excellent, could I get four pumpkin pasties please?” James grinned as he handed over his money.

He kept the smile plastered on his face as Sirius paid for his chocolate before throwing the pasties onto his seat as soon as the witch moved on along the train.

“You want to try to win them back over with pumpkin pasties?” Sirius asked incredulously.

“What sort of novice do you take me for?” James replied into his trunk, “I needed to know what food I should use this on.”

James finally produced a small vial from his trunk that Peter recognised instantly, “Owl tonic?”

“Bingo, it’s technically not poisonous to humans but it tastes terrible,” James smiled evilly.

“Should I ask about this technicality?” Sirius wondered aloud.

“Better not to really,” James replied, twisting the bottle around between his fingers.

“How are you going to get it into his food then? They’re not exactly waiting for us to come back and be their best friends,” Sirius said doubtfully.

James exuded confidence as he replied, “That’s my little secret, my friend. I know what I’m doing.”

Sirius fell into a sad silence at that; he quite liked being called a friend by James Potter and was dreading the inevitable moment that he was sorted into Slytherin. Despite the fact that he didn’t always see eye to eye with his parents, he knew that his Black blood would win out and keep him toeing the family line.

James broke through his rumination by suddenly standing up and grabbing his robes, “Well, I’m off to get changed. Peter, you can have some of the pasties, Sirius – “

“I’ll come too,” Sirius replied, trying to maximise the time before James found out about his heritage and inevitably left him to his own devices with Severus Snape. Sirius shuddered at the thought and hoped that the others hadn’t noticed while pulling his own things from his trunk.

They passed Severus and Lily’s new compartment with a few other first years in their new robes on the way to the changing carriage and Sirius and James wore matching saintly smiles as they continued past.

Sirius couldn’t help but be excited by James’ infectious energy, practically bouncing up and down as he thought about his grand plan. After the last plan ruining James’ chances at friendship with Lily Evans, Sirius didn’t have high hopes for the chances of James successfully poisoning Snape’s food without getting caught but he seemed very, very confident.

Sirius changed quickly into his robes, calling out James’ name after leaving his cubicle but noticing that all of the others seemed to be empty. Assuming that James had continued on to the bathrooms in the next carriage, he shrugged and returned to the compartment where Peter was inhaling his second pumpkin pasty with a slightly guilty expression.

A suspiciously long time later, James reappeared with his clothes in a bundle looking slightly out of breath but very cheerful.

He refused to give any details except that the mission had been a success, a fact proven fifteen minutes later when Severus stormed into their compartment followed by an unconvinced Lily.

“First my luggage, now my lunch. What did you do to it?” Severus asked, brandishing a rather sad mustard sandwich under James’ nose.

Lily crossed her arms as James laughed while denying everything, “I didn’t do anything, maybe it’s just greasy from your hair.”

Lily grabbed the sandwich from Severus’ hand and threw it in James’ face before calling him a pig and storming out of their compartment for the third time in a single day.

While Sirius was on James’ side, he couldn’t help that his admiration for Lily only grew when he realised she had also stolen James’ last pumpkin pasty on the way out.

Despite another run in with Lily, James couldn’t keep the smile off his face as he thought of the rage in Severus’ face and just said, “Worth it.”


	2. A Sorting to Remember

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first-years arrive at Hogwarts for a Sorting Ceremony that leaves some people very happy, but others intensely disappointed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Big old chapter of ideas that came to me while procrastinating study for my exams. I think the start is important for the characters but it may also be a little slowly paced so I won't judge if you skip to the sorting ceremony. Enjoy!

As night began to fall, the Hogwarts Express slowly pulled into its station, and it felt like the whole train was buzzing with excitement.

From tiny first years tittering away in their carriages, to seventh years eagerly awaiting the feast in their house colours, Sirius didn’t think he’d ever been surrounded by so much joy in his life. James couldn’t keep still and was starting to drive Sirius insane with his incessant foot-tapping on the floor.

Meanwhile Peter had been pacing anxiously for the last half hour, muttering under his breath about possibly being a squib and being sent home. James and Sirius had both tried to calm him down but to no avail; even physically holding him in place had just paused the pacing until they eventually let him get back to it.

It was impossible to miss the moment the train stopped as there was an immediate thundering of heavy trunks being dropped on floors and loud chatter flooding the hallway.

Seated near the door as they were, James was one of the first out the door onto the platform where he was immediately joined by Sirius. James had been lightning fast in leaping from his seat when the train was still barely slowing while Sirius had preferred the Black special of elbowing those in his way with a sort of casual disdain.

The platform itself was somewhat underwhelming after all the excitement the boys had built up. It was a plain, red-brick affair with brightly lit, wrought-iron streetlamps that seemed to run on air alone and quickly becoming infested with a sea of tall teenagers in dark robes.

To the south was a long, cobbled road filled with empty carriages leading into the depths of the dense forest blocking any potential view of the legendary Hogwarts castle. The majority of students in their house robes were streaming towards the carriages and Sirius and James made to follow before a booming voice made them both turn to the other end of the platform.

A towering figure stood near the north end of the platform, blocking a streetlamp with his immense size as he bellowed, “Firs’ years over here! Firs’ years to me!”

As tall as James and Sirius stacked on top of each other, the man waving to the first years had a friendly smile surrounded by an immense amount of hair, cascading from his beard and his head down to almost his waist. The only thing Sirius could think of a wizard this size being was a giant, but he was sure they were several feet taller again.

James seemed to be thinking along the same lines as he whispered, “Surely there’s no such thing as a half-giant… right?”

Sirius frowned at the thought and the maybe giant seemed to have noticed, almost bowling him over with a heavy pat on the shoulder as he said cheerily, “Don’t look so nervous, lad, the sorting ceremony isn’t that scary.”

Sirius decided it was best not to clarify the cause for his concern, instead just nodding silently while trying to subtly stretch his knees after the forceful pat he’d been given.

To his left, James seemed to be looking for something on the platform while the maybe giant’s attention was drawn away to the rest of the expanding pool of tiny children at his feet.

“Where’s Peter?” James asked, still scanning the platform as the hairy wizard waved an arm, beckoning the first years to follow him down a winding trail through the trees.

Sirius joined in looking around the group of first years, then the rest of the platform, but neither could see the mousy-haired boy anywhere. The crowds of students heading south had started to thin out and either Peter had been caught up with the earlier swarm or he wasn’t with any of the groups of students in their bright house colours splitting up between the carriages.

“Is he still on the train?” Sirius wondered aloud.

Without trying to warn the large wizard or any of their fellow first years, James had abandoned his trunk and run back through the doors of the train. Sirius quickly followed, stopping immediately inside to find James standing above a sobbing Peter still in their compartment.

In the doorway lay shards of what looked like a small glass statue, half swept up into a pile.

Peter was occasionally producing audible words between sobs, “Useless… going home… couldn’t even… Mum’s owl…”

Sirius reached out a hand for Peter’s shoulder, more gently than he had experienced earlier, as he comforted him, “No way, if you got your letter it’s because they know you’ll be a great wizard. Your mum wouldn’t want you to give up now.”

Mention of his parents only seemed to make Peter sob harder as James reached for the shards of glass owl on the floor.

“Are we in Hogwarts grounds do you reckon?” James asked.

Sirius shrugged, not quite understanding the urgency of the question.

“Peter, if I fix your owl will you come up to the castle? We’ll look after you, promise,” James reached out his hand to grasp Peter’s wrist in a motion Sirius had seen used once for an Unbreakable Vow. It was unlikely that James knew how to properly execute the spell, and Sirius certainly didn’t, but it seemed that James Potter wasn’t the one to do things by halves.

Peter’s tears slowed as he stammered, “B-but… how?”

James withdrew his grip before reaching for his wand and muttering, “_Reparo._”

Sirius was as stunned as Peter when the small fragments of glass shuddered briefly before coalescing into the form of a small, ornate owl.

“Th-thank you,” Peter’s hands trembled as he reached for the trinket, cautiously replacing it in his pocket with a soft handkerchief.

“Sorry to ruin the moment, but I think everyone has left without us,” Sirius said, looking out the compartment window to the empty platform.

James wasted no time in grabbing Peter’s trunk while Peter retrieved his owl and the three boys ran back to their luggage on the platform. There were lights on in the conductor’s cabin of the train, but James had already started racing down the path after the first years before Sirius could suggest asking the train staff.

Sirius followed, already out of breath with James’ breakneck pace down the winding forest path before they had even passed the tree line. Peter was audibly huffing a short distance behind them, bringing the sound of distressed owl with him as he blundered through the trees with his cage jostling in the breeze.

They had made it several hundred metres into the trees when James suddenly came to halt, crashing into the enormous wizard from the platform.

“There ye are, I thought ye’d gone home!” the wizard said, steadying James with an enormous palm.

“We… we left something on the train,” Sirius huffed, considering retching as he rested with his hands on his knees.

The wizard looked at Peter’s terrified expression and nodded to himself without asking any questions as he picked the three trunks up under one gigantic left arm.

“Well no harm done, let’s get ye down to the boats,” he said cheerfully as he started marching down the path before turning back, “The name’s Hagrid by the way. Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts.”

The boys made breathless introductions before beginning at a quick jog to follow Hagrid down towards, presumably, the boats. He hummed merrily as the trees began to open out onto a magnificent lake, across from which was the most elaborate castle Sirius, James and Peter had ever seen.

It glowed faintly with candlelight in the evening air, towers jutting out at all angles surrounded by faintly hooting owls. The lake itself felt alive, covered in tiny boats propelling themselves across its inky, black waters with faint ripples in their wake breaking up the reflection of the bright full moon.

Hagrid chuckled when he saw the three boys staring at the castle, “Come on you three, we can’t spend all night lollygagging.”

They tripped over their feet making their way into the boat, holding tightly to their seats as Hagrid fell heavily into the back seat and threatened to tip the whole thing over.

As soon as he was seated, the boat started to propel itself across the water without an oar in sight. The other boats had almost made landing across the lake and Sirius was sure he felt their boat speed up slightly as Hagrid fiddled with something in his coat.

Now that they were settled, Sirius felt like he was experiencing one of the most brilliant sights he would ever see as he looked across the water, lit by the moon and the lamp of their boat, and out to the Hogwarts castle. He could feel old magic that reminded him of the Black household, but somehow far more welcoming and joyous. Laughter and chatter echoed across the water from the mostly brightly lit room, an immensely high-ceilinged hall next to the magnificent wooden doors at the front of the castle.

It felt too soon that the boat bumped gently against the shore and Hagrid pulled it onto the bank with his left hand.

He told them to leave their trunks where they were before ushering them towards the castle, “Quickly, come on.”

Instead of turning right into the hall Sirius had been admiring, Hagrid led them into a small room to their left where a stern-looking witch immediately fell silent as they entered.

“Got a few stragglers, Professor McGonagall,” Hagrid said, giving the boys a not-so-gentle push into the room before leaving with a small wave.

“Evening,” Sirius said, trying to dispel some of the awkwardness from the dozens of eyes now staring at them. The girl and the boy from the train looked particularly disgusted at their late arrival while faint whispers could be heard between the other students packed into the corner.

“Thank you for finally deciding to join us,” McGonagall said curtly, “As I was saying, soon you will be sorted into the four houses. You will place the sorting hat on your head, and its decision is final. Once it has been announced, you will take a seat at your house table in preparation for the feast. Are there any questions?”

All whispering had ceased as soon as McGonagall had spoken, and Sirius thought that it was unlikely anyone would dare speak up now even if they were unsure of what was happening.

“Very well, line up in alphabetical order and I shall lead you into the Great Hall,” McGonagall said, conjuring a list of names in order from the tip of her wand.

Sirius waved goodbye to James and Peter before moving near the front of the line, behind a sandy-haired boy with a wide nose named Bertram Aubrey. He barely looked nervous in the slightest, exuding an aura that Sirius would have called confidence in James, but called arrogance in the freckled boy who ignored him as he shuffled into line.

Turning to the back, Sirius found James and Severus Snape rather unsurprisingly already glaring at each other. Sirius hadn’t noticed quite how ill-fitting Severus’ robes were earlier, but now standing alone in the line he looked like he was about to be swallowed by them.

Before James and Severus’ staring match could come to anything more serious, they were led by Professor McGonagall into the Great Hall. All quarrels were forgotten as the students stared at the ceiling above, bewitched to look like a bright, clear evening sky with each star glowing as if absorbing the light from the hundreds of candles floating below.

At the end of four long tables, pride of place was given to an old, patchwork leather hat on a small, wooden stool.

Professor McGonagall stopped beside it, turning to face the students in silence as the first years huddled together at the ends of the tables, staring at the hat. Sirius barely noticed the teachers lined up along the gilded head table while a pool of dread sat heavy in his stomach.

He was glad he wasn’t standing next to James as he wasn’t sure he could handle seeing the impending disappointment on James’ face when the hat declared him a Slytherin like Snape.

Several students jumped backwards, bumping into each other when the hat suddenly opened its mouth and began to speak:

_“So, it starts, another year,_

_Let me sit upon your ears,_

_There I stay so I may hear,_

_Your deepest, darkest fears,_

_From within your head I will decide,_

_Where your allegiance lies,_

_Which house will become your bedside,_

_Which friends will become allies,_

_Maybe your home is Ravenclaw,_

_If you have logic, wit and smarts,_

_If always learning more and more,_

_Will satisfy your hearts,_

_Perhaps you’ll be in Hufflepuff,_

_With the most loyal, kind and true,_

_They welcome all, soft or tough,_

_You need only welcome them too,_

_Some futures may lie in Slytherin,_

_Where ambition will be your guide,_

_In each, a certain drive to win,_

_With all that cunning on your side,_

_Finally, you may be Gryffindors,_

_The most daring, bold and brave,_

_ A lion’s courage is also yours,_

_You’ll take chivalry to your grave,_

_One last thing, now don’t forget,_

_While filling your heads with stuff,_

_Enemies you make you will regret,_

_When times grow hard and tough,_

_Let’s not waste any more time,_

_As you’re all ready to dine,_

_I’ll finish here with my rhyme,_

_And instead choose houses to assign!”_

The Great Hall burst into applause and Sirius couldn’t help himself from joining in, stunned by the Hat’s prose and feeling a little bit guilty about the enemies he had already made.

He quickly refocused on the situation at hand as Professor McGonagall once again summoned the list of names from her wand.

“When I call your name, you will step forth and be sorted into your house,” she announced before reading the first name, “Conrad Avery.”

The first years all watched with rapt attention as a lanky, very pale boy walked slowly towards the stool. He seemed almost confident as he turned to face the sea of students watching from the four house tables, a confidence that seemed to be justified when the hat immediately came to its conclusion.

_“SLYTHERIN!”_

Avery smirked while strutting over to the Slytherin table, where Sirius could see his cousin Narcissa waiting to welcome him into the fold. She could be spotted immediately by her proximity to a prefect with brilliant, white-blonde hair who Sirius had been introduced to last Christmas; Lucius Malfoy. They seemed to be the power couple of Slytherin house, surrounded by a number of gossiping girls and boys vying for their attention.

Sirius’ stomach seemed to flip over again as he noticed the seat they had saved across from them at the Slytherin table which he as certain was intended to be his.

Bertram Aubrey took far longer than Conrad Avery, seeming to frown as though he was hearing something he didn’t like while the hat remained silent. Sirius was sure Aubrey was whispering something under his breath which seemed a bit superfluous when the hat apparently read your mind.

“_RAVENCLAW_!”

The announcement came suddenly, and Sirius was sure he wasn’t ready for this. The last thing he saw before the hat fell completely over his eyes was James Potter’s eager face in the crowd.

_Another Black I see_, a voice announced in Sirius’ head, _normally these are easy_.

Sirius tried to hide his confusion but realised it was pointless when the hat was in his head anyway.

_This one’s not sure it wants to be in Slytherin. But where else to put you? A bit of ego here, not very Hufflepuff of you, clever but with such grand plans to waste that knowledge. There is a lot of ambition in here, so many schemes… oh but your doubts aren’t the only secrets you’ve been keeping from your family are they?_

Sirius understood now why Aubrey had been frowning, he was hearing what the hat thought of him and wasn’t entirely sure he liked what he heard. Then again, the way it was talking made him wonder; was there really a chance he wouldn’t be joining the family tradition in Slytherin?

_Oh yes, my boy,_ the hat replied to his thoughts, _in fact… I think you’ll be best served in_-

“_GRYFFINDOR!”_ the hat announced to the room at large.

“No!” a voice shrieked as Sirius went to put the hat back on the stool, heart racing.

He turned back to see Narcissa on her feet, expression horrified by the hat’s proclamation. More important than his betrayal of the house tradition was the fact that he had embarrassed her in front of her Slytherin cronies. Sirius could already see them whispering up and down the table as Lucius grabbed her hand to pull her back into her seat.

Worrying about Narcissa was too much for Sirius as his brain was overwhelmed by processing the information that he had been sorted into Gryffindor. After all the fears that he would be separated from his new friends on the train, it seemed that Sirius should have at least considered the possibility that he would end up instead disappointing his family.

His new housemates cleared a space for him near the middle, where a round-faced girl with a prefect badge clapped loudly until he arrived in his seat. All around him were new faces introducing themselves, but Sirius couldn’t hear any of their names over the buzzing in his ears.

When he finally turned back to the sorting ceremony, he found James trying to catch his eye with a mimed cheer. Sirius responded weakly with a smile and thumbs up while the Sorting Hat announced that ‘Alicia Cattermole’ was in Hufflepuff.

Sirius spent several minutes away with his thoughts before turning back in when he realised the pretty girl from the train, Lily Evans, was about to take her seat.

The hat pondered for some time while Lily had her face scrunched up in a look of intense concentration. Sirius wondered what the hat was saying to her, if it was listing her weaknesses and announcing her deepest insecurities or simply deciding between her strengths.

Whatever the hat was doing, it eventually came to a decision as it spoke again to the entire hall.

“_GRYFFINDOR_!”

Sirius happened to catch Severus’ look of intense disappointment before waving to Lily to come and join him at the centre of the Gryffindor table. For a moment, she caught his eye before taking on a look of disgust and immediately parking herself between some cheering sixth year girls near the head of the table.

James clearly noticed this too and looked crestfallen as he turned back to look at Sirius and mimed a dramatic sigh.

Sirius’s stomach was beginning to rumble loudly by the time the hat reached Mary McDonald who joined Lily at the Gryffindor table and he found himself idly fantasising about the hat maybe speeding its magical soul-searching up a bit. It was always easier to not think about anything unpleasant when you could think about food instead.

The hat seemed to still be reading his hungry mind and deciding to torment him as it became time for Peter’s sorting. It seemed as if the hat had swallowed him whole as it sat around his chin, obscuring Peter’s reactions from view except for his knuckles turning white while they gripped the stool tightly.

Minutes passed in uncomfortable silence, punctuated occasionally by curious whispers debating what the holdup was. While this was Sirius’ first sorting, the gossip was suggesting that the hat was taking a rarely long amount of time to think by anyone’s standards and he briefly worried that Peter’s breakdown on the train had been correct. Could the hat really decide that he didn’t belong here and send him home?

This didn’t make much sense though as Peter had told a quite clear story of discovering his magical abilities when the boys had gossiped on the train. Several groups of Gryffindors and Ravenclaws at the table behind Sirius reached the same theory and dismissed it equally quickly, the Hogwarts letters were never wrong.

“_GRYFFINDOR_!” the hat suddenly called into the great hall, interrupting the whispers that had grown into a steady chatter after a couple of minutes of waiting.

Peter looked like he was about to cry when he finally took the hat off his head, appearing deathly pale and gripping the stool as though he was about to fall over. It wasn’t quite the joyous tears Sirius was expecting after what must have been a grilling by the hat, he seemed rather deeply upset by whatever conversation had led to Peter being placed in the house of his dreams.

Sirius happened to catch James’ eye as Peter stepped down towards the Gryffindor table, mouthing something that it took a moment for Sirius to understand.

He nudged the Gryffindors nearest to him, directing them to start a chant which spread like wildfire down the table, “One of us! One of us!”

Peter’s anxious expression seemed to clear a little with the raucous welcome, even beginning to break into a small smile when he reached the space next to Sirius. There was only time for a brief nod and a pat on the back before James’ name was being called by Professor McGonagall.

Sirius thought the hat’s decision was a bit callous after Peter’s lengthy deliberation; he was sure he saw the hat open its mouth before even properly being placed on James’ head to announce:

“_GRYFFINDOR_!”

James’ grin was a mile wild as he conducted the chanting and cheering following him down to his seat opposite Sirius. Even Lily Evans’ glare couldn’t take the edge of his smile as he joined his friends at the Gryffindor table.

All too soon, Severus Snape’s name was called, and James whispered across the table, “Glad I went before him, I don’t know what I’d do if the hat was greasy.”

Sirius chuckled quietly before the hat quickly came to a conclusion that James and Sirius had reached several hours ago:

“_SLYTHERIN_!”

Severus quickly flashed a rare smile before looking over at Lily Evans at the Gryffindor table. She gave him an encouraging smile and wave, but he still looked rather sulky as he walked over to the Slytherin table.

Sirius noticed with displeasure that Narcissa was glaring at him while summoning Severus over to the seat opposite her and Lucius. In any other circumstance he wouldn’t be bothered by not having to sit near his cousin, but it did sting that she was offering the seat left empty by his house betrayal to his new least favourite person.

When ‘Elias Zostra’ was finally placed in Ravenclaw, the crowd began a raucous cheering and a small number of Hufflepuffs had begun drumming their cutlery on their plates in anticipation for dinner.

Smiling serenely at the hungry students in front of him, Headmaster Albus Dumbledore stood from his seat and walked to an ornate lectern in the centre of the head table. It said something impressive about the respect he commanded in the students that they fell silent without another word.

“While normally I would now introduce the school song, I can see that I am merely getting in the way of what is sure to be a most wonderful meal,” Dumbledore announced, “I would just like to remind you all that our caretaker, Mister Argus Filch, has banned the use of ‘dung bombs’ in the hallways. Though I have refused his offer of thumb screws as punishment, I cannot say the same about detention for anyone caught in the act. Now, if I haven’t put you off your dinner, it is time to eat!”

Sirius and James had made eye contact with matching, devilish grins at the mention of dung bombs only to have their eye contact broken by the sudden arrival of mountains of all manner of foods. Now that the table was covered in tureens filled with vegetables and platters of meat, Sirius was sure this was the most food he’d ever seen in one place by at least a factor of ten.

Plans of mischief momentarily forgotten, the boys all eagerly filled up their plates and began stuffing themselves with an exquisitely cooked roast dinner.

Peter seemed to perk up further with the arrival of the food, as well as the relief that he really was sitting among the Gryffindors as one of them. Sirius and James were both curious about what had happened to cause the hat to deliberate for so long but decided against asking too many more questions when Peter finally looked the most cheerful they’d seen him since they met on the train.

James had no such qualms in asking why a Slytherin girl had gotten so upset over Sirius being in Gryffindor, but Sirius had brushed him off with his mouth full of beef and told him it was a story for another time. In all honesty, Sirius didn’t quite know how he was going to tell James about his family and wondered if there were still rough waters ahead for their friendship as he watched James hold an animated discussion about muggle football with a second-year girl on his left.

After clearing his first plate, Sirius turned to the curly-haired prefect who he was reaching over for some potatoes and asked, “Since it’s Sunday, does that mean we start classes tomorrow?”

“Yep, bright and early,” she replied, helping herself to some more iced water.

“Dammit, I was hoping to get at least a day’s exploring in before we had to start lessons,” Sirius sighed. It occurred to him too late that he probably shouldn’t be talking about sneaking around the castle in front of a prefect, but the girl smiled at what she’d overheard.

“And thoughts like that are exactly why they make sure you’re too busy to go getting yourselves lost in secret passages on day one,” the prefect said, “I’m Delilah by the way, I don’t think we were properly introduced.”

From there, dinner was a blur of new faces and names introducing themselves while the boys stuffed their faces with mountains of delicious food.

Though it felt like they had been introduced to half of Gryffindor house by the time dessert was finished, the boys spent the latter half of dessert getting to know the other two boys with whom they’d be sharing a bedroom.

Julius Vasquez was a short, stocky boy who had been born in the Philippines before moving to England. He was joined shortly after their introduction by a Hufflepuff girl with long, black hair down to her waist who he introduced as his twin sister, Jasmine.

Sven, who preferred to be known only by his first name, had been born in Bulgaria and had a number of fascinating stories about travelling around Europe before his parents settled for long enough in Wales that he was enrolled in Hogwarts.

Luckily the five boys all seemed to get along well, though Julius did seem a little overwhelmed by James’ grilling about a muggle device known as an ‘aeroplane’ which Julius had used to come to England from the Philippines.

It felt very late into the night by the time dessert was vanishing from their plates and Delilah and a very tall prefect named Alfred were guiding them through the long trek up to the Gryffindor common room.

The common room was completely covered in maroon wallpaper and Sirius felt like falling asleep where he stood, basking in the warmth of a crackling fireplace in the corner. Large couches and squashy armchairs filled the majority of the room, occasionally interspersed with low tables covered in forgotten Gobstones and the odd wizard’s chess set. Pride of place atop the mantle went to a gigantic trophy with the words ‘Quidditch Cup’ inset with crystals currently glowing a bright red by the light of the fire.

James’ eyes had widened like a child on Christmas day as he stared at the trophy, only reluctantly taking his eyes off it when Alfred called the boys over to a staircase hidden in the back corner to direct them to their dormitory.

After climbing up a tightly winding spiral staircase, Alfred directed them to a dilapidated sign reading ‘first-years’ hanging off a door on the second landing and gave them a final warning to not try to sneak in to the girls’ dormitories before traipsing up the stairs to the sixth years’ room.

The dormitory was dimly lit by the light of the moon filtering through a series of tall, glass windows and they noticed that their trunks had been delivered and placed at the end of a series of luxurious four-poster beds. Sirius’s black and silver trunk was to the right of the door, followed by James, Peter, Sven and Julius who all eagerly moved to test out their new mattresses.

As the boys started taking off their heavy robes and preparing for bed, Sirius noticed something odd about the room.

“Why are there six beds? There’s only five of us,” he asked, pointing to a bed with a brown, leather trunk labelled ‘RJL.’

“Maybe they miscalculated?” Peter offered hesitantly.

“They can’t have miscalculated the sorting; they can’t have even calculated in the first place,” James replied, “Do people repeat years at Hogwarts?”

“My brother’s in third year and he didn’t mention anything like that,” Julius said thoughtfully.

The boys all pondered for a moment before succumbing to the warmth of the room and fullness of their stomachs, shuffling into their own beds with sleepy good nights.

Finding himself to be finally too tired for worrying about his parents’ reactions, Sirius fell to sleep instead wondering when the mystery of the empty bed would be solved, and just who RJL might be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you all are enjoying where I'm taking the story so far, unfortunately the next chapter may be a bit delayed compared to this one but it will finally include the introduction of our final Marauder!


	3. The Howler

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A new student appears in the first year dormitory and Sirius begins to grapple with the ramifications of the Sorting Ceremony

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoy the chapter and that at least one of you gets the double entendre of the chapter title

It was James who awoke first the next day with a sudden, “Who’s there?” which caused Sirius to jolt out of bed, looking wildly around the room for some sort of intruder.

Most of the other boys had also begun to stir with groans and grumbles, tired faces peeking through the curtains around their beds.

The notable exception was the bed nearest the door, which now had the curtains drawn. By the time Sirius was out of bed, James had already readied his wand and was creeping towards the new arrival in his pyjamas.

James whipped the curtains open to reveal a sleeping figure curled up on top of the blankets wearing bright blue pyjamas which were unbuttoned at the front as though he’d fallen asleep where he stood and hadn’t finished dressing himself. Despite the fact that he was currently sleeping, he somehow still looked exhausted with dark circles under his eyes and surprisingly gaunt features for a boy of his age.

Before Sirius could get a proper look at a deep scar poking out from under the edge of the boy’s pyjama top, the boy awoke with a startled gasp and jumped into a sitting position, pulling the top tightly around his chest. His eyes darted quickly around the room as if he didn’t know where he was before fixing on James’ pointed wand with an expression of absolute terror.

“Who are you?” James asked with an air of authority. Sirius was sure James had looked nervous before opening the curtains, but upon realising that their new addition was also an eleven-year-old boy he’d returned to his usual, slightly cocky, self.

“Remus Lupin,” Remus replied, still staring at James’ wand like he was afraid the other eleven-year-old was plotting to use the Killing Curse. Sirius caught Remus glancing sideways, but he had immediately returned to staring at James’ wand when he realised his own wand was well out of reach.

“Why are you in our room?” James followed up, turning his wand slightly in a way that made Remus jump backwards into the headboard. Peter had also jumped slightly and was now standing directly behind James as though he were using him to hide from the boy on the bed. Sirius wasn’t really sure what James was planning to do if the boy did attack him; the most effective thing he knew how to do with his wand was probably to poke Remus in the eye.

“I’m a first year Gryffindor, that’s what the sign on the door said and all of my things were here,” Remus responded. Sirius was beginning to wonder if he should grab James’ wand off him before the poor new kid died of fright; he looked close enough to kicking the bucket when he was still asleep, let alone now.

James considered this for a moment before continuing his interrogation, “Why weren’t you at the feast?”

“I missed the train. We had trouble getting here after that,” Remus said, eyes flickering towards the door like he was seriously considering throwing himself out it and trying to flee.

“How _did_ you end up in Gryffindor? Since you didn’t come to the sorting ceremony,” Sirius pointed out, more curious now that his brain was starting to wake up properly.

“I was sorted er- after I arrived. They must have sent my things up while I was still eating,” he replied, readjusting his position exaggeratedly slowly as if trying not to startle James.

“What time was that?” James asked suspiciously, still not entirely convinced though acting slightly less aggressive than he had been earlier.

“Late?” Remus offered with a nervous smile.

This answer didn’t quite seem to satisfy James, but Sirius decided to take pity before James started trying to whip up a batch of veritaserum, “Well, welcome to Gryffindor. I’m Sirius, this is James and Peter, Julius is over there on your left and I think Sven’s gone back to sleep opposite you.”

Julius grunted, “I’ll be doing the same if James doesn’t start grilling me as well. I prefer my interrogations to start after dawn.”

With that, he glared at James and whipped his curtains closed.

“What time is it?” Sirius asked with an uncertain look out the window at the dim morning sunlight.

“Six thirty,” James replied sheepishly, causing Peter to follow Julius’ lead and turn around to go straight back to bed.

Sirius groaned, knowing that he was terrible at getting back to sleep once he’d woken up in the morning. He’d been hoping to sleep in until at least 8.30, eat breakfast as quickly as possible then be fashionably late to their first class at 9. Remus seemed to sigh as well, looking dejectedly at the pale sunlight streaming through the window opposite him.

“Couldn’t you have waited until at least eight to terrorise our new arrival?” Sirius asked peevishly, shaking his head in dismay.

“You never know, he could’ve been a murderer coming for you or Peter,” James replied in a sulky tone that suggested he wasn’t very accustomed to being told off for anything

“Yes James, a murderer. Sneaking past the fat lady, into Gryffindor tower, just to murder Peter. That sounds likely,” Sirius responded sarcastically, “Go back to bed before you start telling people Sir Nicholas is just pretending to be a ghost so he can further his career in cat burglary.”

James reluctantly skulked back to his bed, pulling the curtains roughly like he was considering throwing a small tantrum but instead settling for a loud ‘_harrumph_’ as he fell into the bed.

Remus had been watching their display with a combination of relief and amusement but returned to wearing a look of concern when Sirius turned back to face him.

“Sorry about that, I think it’s time to go back to bed and retry the introduction later in the morning,” Sirius smiled at Remus before returning to his own bed.

Sirius lay in bed for several minutes trying to convince himself to go back to sleep, but rather quickly gave up and began dressing for the day instead. Overnight his robes had turned a deep maroon down the seams and a series of maroon and gold ties had been folded carefully and slipped into his trunk, a sight that only intensified the queasy feeling in his stomach.

His mother had asked him to send an owl as soon as the sorting was over, intending this to mean a confirmation that Sirius had joined the family in Slytherin. Since the hat had announced that he was to be in Gryffindor instead, Sirius had contemplated finding a way to trick his parents into believing that he was in Slytherin, followed by deciding to tell them nothing at all.

He knew it was a plan with a 0% chance of success but wasn’t ready to face the consequences of ruining all of his mother’s dreams and carefully cultivated Slytherin, pure-blood household at the age of eleven.

Instead he decided to give up on sleep and distract himself with an early breakfast in the Great Hall where he could contemplate drowning himself in the orange juice and saving all of the trouble of needing to tell his parents anything. He quickly changed into his robes without looking too closely at the colour and was almost at the door when he heard a voice on his right.

“I’ll join you, I can’t get to sleep,” Remus said quietly, opening the curtains to reveal that he was already fully dressed as well.

“You sure about that?” Sirius asked as Remus yawned widely. Despite his height suggesting that he was, indeed, eleven, Remus had heavy under-eye bags and a guarded expression that spoke more of an exhausted, much older man.

“Yep,” Remus replied while yawning again.

Sirius decided it was for the best not to question it given the already tenuous beginnings to the friendship after James’ interrogation and instead held the door open for Remus as before they slowly trudged down the stairs.

They walked mostly in silence toward the Great Hall. It seemed that the feast and the long journey to Hogwarts of the night before had worn most students out since the corridors were largely empty. Even the portraits seemed to be having a slow morning, with most of them still asleep in their frames and looking rather annoyed when Sirius or Remus nudged them awake to ask for directions.

“Architectural nightmare this place is,” Sirius grumbled as the stairs took them to a fourth-floor landing with a single locked door for the third time in a row.

“Maybe we’re meant to go through the door?” Remus offered, optimistically yanking the handle again.

“No, I’m sure there’s a way to get down to that door over there then down to the entrance hall,” Sirius pointed at a small wooden door with an overhanging stone arch on their right, “Wonder what’d happen if we jumped…”

Remus immediately yanked Sirius back from the edge of the landing by his collar, “Don’t do that!”

Sirius turned to face Remus with a quizzical expression, “Kidding… obviously.”

Remus let out a small, “Oh,” before awkwardly scratching his neck and staring at his shoes.

“Oi, Pumpkin Head,” Sirius yelled suddenly. Remus looked up to follow Sirius’ line of sight and discovered to his surprise that Sirius was, in fact, yelling at a wizard with a pumpkin on his head attempting to sneak through a seemingly empty painting of a farmyard and barn.

The painted wizard jumped with alarm before dropping into the portrait of a sleeping witch next to the locked door.

“Shut it, or are you trying to get me killed?” Pumpkin Head hissed angrily. As he spoke, Remus and Sirius saw a large pair of yellow eyes appear in the farmyard grass and blink slowly before vanishing from view again.

“We just wanted directions off your landing,” Sirius hissed back.

“Just walk off, it’s not that hard,” the painting responded, brushing small chips of dirt onto the head of an elderly wizard smoking a pipe in the painting below.

Sirius moved back to the bannister where he’d been standing before Remus had grabbed his collar, but the painting grumpily interrupted, “Not there, you idiot, over there.”

The painting pointed a long, questionably human finger at the opposite railing which melted away as Remus touched it. Where the floor had ended, a long set of narrow stone steps was materialising before their eyes.

“Thanks,” Sirius said to the portrait behind him, only to realise that the wizard with the pumpkin for a head had mysteriously vanished from view.

“We’ll find him again, let’s get down these stairs quickly before they vanish again,” Remus said, touching the top step lightly with his toe before properly putting his weight through it.

Sirius followed and they both descended the staircase as quickly as possible. Descending until the level beneath the wooden door Sirius had pointed out earlier, they found themselves stopped by a small stone door with a round metal ring in the place of a handle.

Remus pulled the handle hesitantly, only to find himself staring directly into the entrance hall. He stepped cautiously through the doorway, followed by Sirius, and looked quizzically around at the large stone steps that ordinarily brought students down into the entranceway.

By the time Sirius had turned back to look at the doorway, he found that there was nothing there.

Not simply a hidden door, but a complete lack of any sort of indentation to suggest there could ever have been a hinged door in the sheer face of the wall. Remus joined Sirius in running his fingers over the place where the edge of the door should have been, even tried with his wand, but to no avail.

Their investigation was quickly interrupted by the arrival of a tiny wizard who Sirius recognised as the Charms teacher, Professor Flitwick. While Sirius had struggled to remember many of the teachers pointed out to him at the previous night’s feast, Professor Flitwick was particularly distinctive due to his diminutive stature and the fact that he appeared to be even older than Professor Dumbledore.

“Good morning boys,” he said brightly, making them both jump away from the wall and attempt innocent smiles.

“Good morning, Professor,” Sirius replied, trying to slowly replace his wand in his pocket from where it was hidden behind his back.

“Enjoying your first morning at Hogwarts?” Flitwick asked while Remus tried desperately to come up with an excuse for their odd behaviour.

“Yes sir, very much so. Do the walls normally talk here?” Remus asked, thinking of their conversation with the portrait of the man with the pumpkin for a head.

Flitwick chuckled and replied, “I wouldn’t put it past them. It is usually a portrait or Peeves though.”

“Peeves?” Sirius wondered aloud.

“The school poltergeist, I’d advise staying on his good side if I were you so best not to do too much poking around with those wands,” Flitwick responded, looking meaningfully at Sirius’ wand still sticking out of his pocket.

The boys both blushed bright red and Flitwick simply laughed cheerily before wandering into the hall muttering to himself about marmalade. They shared a brief look of relief at not being asked too many more questions before following Flitwick into the Great Hall.

The room was minimally decorated compared to the previous night as the Hogwarts banners had been moved to the sides of the room and the depiction of a bright morning sky removed the need for the thousands of candles, but still Remus looked around the gigantic space with an expression of awe. He made a couple of distracted steps towards the Ravenclaw table while staring at the ceiling before Sirius grabbed his sleeve to redirect him to the Gryffindor table.

When Sirius took a seat, Remus immediately slid in beside him and Sirius started to point at the opposite side of the table before trailing off, “You sure you don’t want to sit on the – you know what never mind.”

Sirius wasn’t sure if he was being judgemental based on his parents’ strict upbringing or if Remus was just odd, but it was beginning to seem like he didn’t spend a great deal of time around other people.

This suspicion was further proven when Sirius tried starting conversation, “So where are you from?”

“Wales,” Remus replied, looking at the food which had already started appearing on the table with an expression of uncertainty.

“Do you like it there?” Sirius tried again, noticing with confusion that Remus immediately followed suit when he grabbed a piece of toast and began buttering it.

“Not really,” Remus said with a dark tone.

It was at this point that Sirius decided to give up on his attempt at conversation and instead start on breakfast. After the last night’s meal, Sirius only wanted a few slices of toast and some juice, but Remus loaded up his plate with all manner of food. Sirius quietly thought that it seemed like Remus needed the massive amount of food to bring him back from the brink of death.

After a few minutes of eating in silence, James appeared in front of them looking much perkier than earlier, followed reluctantly by a grumpy Peter.

“Morning Sirius, Remus,” James said cheerily with no suggestion of his earlier suspicion and moodiness.

“What’s good for breakfast?” Peter asked, looking at his plate as though he was sizing it up for use as a pillow.

“Everything,” Remus replied through a mouth full of bacon.

Peter looked pleased with this response and finally properly opened his eyes to inspect the food on offer.

Sirius was halfway through regaling James with the story of their adventure with the staircases when a loud rustling of wings interrupted their conversation. He trailed off mid-sentence and looked up with dread as a storm cloud of owls burst through an open window near the ceiling and spread out across the hall to make their morning deliveries.

The large, red letter stood out immediately amongst the various newspapers and letters from home being delivered around the hall. As soon as the eagle owl had flown through the open window, Sirius could see whispers spreading across the hall as people wondered who had already managed to earn themselves a Howler.

Over at the Slytherin table, Narcissa had a particularly nasty smile on her face that confirmed Sirius’ fear that the letter was destined for him.

As it drew closer, Sirius recognised the bird as his parent’s least favourite owl. Crucio was a beautiful specimen but seemed to have taken after his namesake and particularly enjoyed viciously pecking anything he could get his beak on.

True to form, Crucio dropped the Howler on Sirius’ toast from some height to allow himself time to dive before pecking Sirius’ ear hard enough to draw blood. Peter tried to offer some toast to distract the bird, but quickly found himself having to withdraw his fingers after a rapid-fire series of pecks which made him yelp with pain.

Since there was no way to avoid the letter opening, and he was too far from the door to make it outside, Sirius decided to own the reputation he was inevitably about to develop. He grabbed the letter with his left hand and stood on the seat, drawing the attention of the last few people who hadn’t heard the whispers about the Howler and causing Crucio to hop away from the movement toward a large platter of sausages.

“Listen up everyone, time to enjoy the first Howler of the school year,” Sirius announced before raising the Howler above his head and calling, “_Incendio_.”

The envelope was quickly covered in flames before the seal burst open and Mrs Black’s voice filled the hall, “HOW DARE YOU! HOW DARE YOU, MY OWN SON, BETRAY ME! YOUR FATHER AND I RAISED YOU BETTER THAN THIS! EVERY BLACK HAS BEEN IN SLYTHERIN HOUSE SINCE HOGWARTS WAS FOUNDED, BUT I SUPPOSE YOU THINK IT’S FUNNY TO RUIN YOUR FAMILY’S REPUTATION! WE HAVEN’T EVEN TOLD YOUR BROTHER, HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO TELL HIM THAT HIS BROTHER IS AN EMBARRASSMENT TO THE FAMILY NAME?! YOU BEST REMEMBER WHAT WE TAUGHT YOU ABOUT _PROPER_ WITCHES AND WIZARDS BECAUSE I’M BRINGING YOU HOME IF I HEAR THAT YOU’VE BEEN CONSORTING WITH FILTHY, HORRIBLE, MUGGLE-LOVING M- “

Sirius had never seen a witch move so quickly as Professor McGonagall who leapt to her feet and waved her wand silently at the flaming letter which exploded into dust. She was watching Sirius with a dark expression that caused him to immediately sit down and try to hide from view.

There was a moment of silence as the room processed what Mrs Black had been about to say before loud chatter started building up, inevitably gossiping about what had just occurred.

James, Peter and Remus were all gawping openly at Sirius, which was probably the best he could hope for given the number of other students staring at him with open disgust.

“Something you want to get off your chest, Sirius?” James asked incredulously.

“Uh so I’m from a pure-blood family,” Sirius started uncertainly.

“So am I and you don’t see me getting letters like that!” James replied, gesturing vaguely at the air where the Howler had been.

Peter and Remus were both looking at him with expressions of terror while Lupin had conspicuously shuffled a few centimetres away. Sirius recognised Peter’s expression as the same look of fear he had given the boys on the Hogwarts Express when they first met, a thought that made him feel deeply ashamed.

At home, his parents had freely used all sorts of language and said all thoughts of things about what they considered the ‘wrong sort’ of wizard. Sirius had largely just assumed that they knew what they were talking about and played along but confronted with the horror of his peers Sirius was starting to wonder if his sense of internal shame at disappointing his family had been misdirected.

For years he had felt ashamed by the thought that he wasn’t living up to his family’s expectations, that he was always in trouble and always asking the wrong questions. Over the last 24 hours, he’d been beginning to have an intrusive thought that maybe it was his family he should have been ashamed of, and the little voice of doubt was only getting louder by the minute.

“They’re sort of… extreme purists about the whole thing,” Sirius tried explaining again.

“What are you doing here then?” James asked, gesturing toward the Gryffindor table.

“You heard her, embarrassing the family name apparently,” Sirius replied dryly. James briefly smiled before returning to frowning at the thought of the Howler.

Before the three boys could decide how to feel about Sirius’ family, Sirius noticed Professor McGonagall striding toward him from the head table.

Her lips were pressed together tightly, forming a thin line as she stared down at Sirius before commanding, “Come with me, Mr Black.”

Sirius bowed his head and reluctantly followed Professor McGonagall out of the Great Hall. No doubt his parents would be gleeful to discover that their howler had clearly had the desired effect in immediately getting him in trouble. Maybe Dumbledore had decided the hat had made a mistake and Sirius needed to be returned to his own kind immediately.

All too quickly, Sirius found his thoughts distracted by Professor McGonagall coming to a rather brisk halt beside a large statue of a griffin. He felt his stomach clench unpleasantly and was glad he hadn’t matched Remus’ appetite for breakfast when a wave of anxious nausea washed over him.

Even the password, “Dung bomb,” failed to brighten Sirius’ mood before he walked into the Headmaster’s office with shaky footsteps.

McGonagall didn’t follow him, instead leaving Sirius to stand alone in the cavernous office. His eye was drawn immediately to his right where a large, golden stand surrounded by husks of bird seed stood unoccupied. Sirius would’ve appreciated company of any variety, but it seemed that the bird had recently vacated its perch to leave him alone with his thoughts.

“Oh ho ho, someone’s in trouble,” a snide voice mocked from behind Sirius’ head, “I wonder what your dear mother would think?”

“Don’t you dare,” Sirius snarled, turning quickly to point his wand threateningly at the portrait of his great-great-grandfather.

Phineas Nigellus Black simply looked condescendingly amused, smirking at Sirius’ expression. All too quickly, his humiliation and shame had turned to anger, and Sirius wondered if it might be possible to light the portrait on fire like the Howler.

Before he could make a decision, a quiet click alerted Sirius to a small side door closing as the Headmaster strode into his office. He was a slim man, taller than he appeared from the tables at the great hall, and with a presence that seemed to fill the room even when he entered in silence.

For a moment, the only sounds were the clicking of the heels of Dumbledore’s midnight blue boots on the flagstone floor and the gentle whirring of a mysterious device behind Sirius’ left ear. Sirius subconsciously held his breath as he waited for Dumbledore to say anything rather than simply looking at him like he was completely transparent.

“I sometimes wonder if we do the wrong thing, allowing so many of pureblood descent to congregate in Slytherin,” Dumbledore said suddenly, half lost in thought, “Then again, it could be rather dangerous to allow them such easy access to torment those of their own house if they were to be sent elsewhere. Are we containing a problem to stop it from contaminating others or are we simply letting it fester?”

“I don’t know, Professor,” Sirius responded quietly, unsure if Dumbledore had intended for him to answer or if Sirius simply happened to be existing in the space where Dumbledore’s ponderance had led him.

“If only one of us did,” Dumbledore sighed heavily, picking up a copy of the Daily Prophet from his desk and dropping it into a small bin beside his desk.

Sirius remained silent until Dumbledore directed him to a low seat opposite his own at the grand, wooden desk.

“As both your great-great-grandfather and parents,” Dumbledore began, gesturing to the snidely grinning portrait and then to a letter on his desk written in a deep emerald ink, “Have so kindly reminded me, you are the first Black to have been in a house other than Slytherin in centuries. As such, I feel I must beg of you that you do not bring your prejudices with you into your new home.”

“You want me to be nice to mu- to muggle-borns?” Sirius translated.

“If that is how you want to put it. A word of warning, Sirius, that if I ever hear that word leave your mouth while at this school you will find yourself on detention for the rest of the year. Am I making myself very clear?” Dumbledore stared intensely over the frames of his half-moon glasses.

“Yes professor,” Sirius replied earnestly. Although Dumbledore had said nothing of punishment or made any sort of threat, Sirius got the distinct impression that Albus Dumbledore was not someone to cross. Even at home his parents held the name of Albus Dumbledore in a sort of disgusted reverence; wasting his power on muggle-borns but possessing it all the same.

“Is there something you would like to ask me?” Dumbledore asked after a moment of charged silence.

“Well,” Sirius began cautiously, “Is it possible that the Sorting Hat could have made a mistake?”

Dumbledore thought for a moment before answering with another question, “Do you know how the Sorting Hat works, Sirius?”

Sirius shook his head and Dumbledore continued, “The hat itself belonged to Godric Gryffindor when the founders of the school began construction. After they argued about how best to select the students they wished to carry their respective legacies, they agreed to each imbue the hat with a part of themselves. Every year, the remnants of the four founders examine the mind of the hat’s wearer and come to an agreement about the house to which the witch or wizard is best suited.

“Given your family and your upbringing, it seems possible that Godric Gryffindor saw something within you that made him fight to remove a pure-blood Black from Slytherin’s clutches,” Dumbledore explained, eyes narrowing slightly as he appraised Sirius, “Unless, of course, you refused to be placed into Slytherin. Salazar Slytherin was never one who took kindly to rejection.”

Sirius tried to maintain a neutral expression as he thought about Dumbledore’s words; had he really refused to be put into Slytherin? The hat’s mention of other houses had been the first time he’d truly considered not being in Slytherin, but had Slytherin taken his consideration of the other houses as an unforgivable weakness? Sirius definitely thought it was possible; his parents and cousins would never have dreamed of going anywhere else.

“Regardless, Gryffindor does not take students into his house lightly,” Dumbledore continued eventually, “You should be proud of the bravery he clearly saw in you.”

Sirius didn’t know how to feel. He almost wished Dumbledore would just tell him the answers directly rather than simply giving him more food for thought.

When he left the office to head to his first Transfiguration lesson, he had one major question on his mind: had Gryffindor chosen him, or had he failed Slytherin?

**Author's Note:**

> Chapter one done, leave a comment if you want more chapters in this much detail or if you want me to start speeding things up a little once we get into the nitty gritty of the school years. Also let me know if you have any thoughts on the Harry Potter phone game because there's some story and character stuff in that which I could use but I'm not sure if I want to.


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